D-Von Dudley thinks Arik Cannon may want to be careful about how far he takes his issues with Avery Styles. Calling out AJ Styles’ 19-year-old son publicly might win an argument online, but D-Von believes handling wrestling business that way can eventually come back to hurt your own career.
While speaking on the D-Von and The Duke podcast, D-Von’s defense of Avery turned into a warning about what can happen when wrestlers choose to fight their battles publicly. As far as D-Von is concerned, this particular battle simply wasn’t worth it.
“Again, you got to be careful. You know, sometimes you can shoot yourself in the foot. You know, you got to pick and choose your battles. And sometimes certain battles aren’t worth fighting. And this is one of them.”
D-Von has been around wrestling long enough to see what happens when people burn the wrong bridges. He pointed toward wrestlers who spend 20 or 30 years in the business without ever getting where they wanted to go. Sometimes talent isn’t the only reason. D-Von believes things people say and do can follow them, and getting blackballed or becoming someone others simply don’t want to work with can keep a career stuck in place.
“And then you wonder why sometimes guys have been in the business for 20, 30 years and haven’t gone anywhere. You know, because sometimes you burn bridges. Sometimes you get blackballed. Sometimes people don’t want to deal with you because of certain things that you might have said or done.”
D-Von sees a much easier way Cannon could have handled this. Talk to the promoter. Talk to Avery. Say exactly what the problem was. Just don’t immediately put somebody on blast for everyone else to judge.
“There’s a way to handle things. You don’t have to go on social media and blast somebody. You know, you can go to the promoter. You can go to the individual and say, ‘Hey, listen, I didn’t appreciate this,’ or, ‘I thought you should have done this.’ You know, you handle it amongst yourselves.”
The whole mess started after Cannon accused Avery of avoiding setup and teardown work at a GCW event in Minneapolis. Cannon claimed AJ Styles’ son was asked multiple times to help with chairs before disappearing into the locker room until the work was finished. AJ fired back that his son was booked and paid to wrestle, not work ring crew, and eventually called Cannon a “jealous douche.” Cannon certainly didn’t let it go after that.
He posted a photo of WWE Hall of Famer Jimmy Hart helping with chairs after a wrestling event. Then came Cody Rhodes sweeping broken glass from a ring during his independent wrestling days. The point was obvious—if those names could pitch in, Avery could too.
D-Von already pushed back on that argument by saying young wrestlers need to actually be told what is expected of them rather than having promoters simply assume they know. Now he’s warning about what can happen when that disagreement becomes everybody’s business.
“Again, pick and choose your battles. Not every battle is worth fighting. And sometimes you have to know when to just let something go because it could come back and bite you in the ass later on.”
Cannon wanted to make a point about Avery Styles paying his dues. D-Von thinks he may want to consider whether making that point publicly is worth potentially burning bridges of his own.
What do you make of D-Von Dudley’s warning about the Avery Styles controversy? Do you think Cannon should have handled his issues with Avery privately instead of taking them to social media? Let us know in the comments below.
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